Living Across and Through Skins: Transactional Bodies, Pragmatism, and (Paperback)

by Shannon Sullivan (Author) "What does Dewey mean by transaction, particularly with respect to bodies?..." (more)
Key Phrases: nondiscursive body, pluralist objectivity, projective intentionality, Reconfiguring Gender, Transactional Knowing, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Sullivan (Pennsylvania State Univ.) constructs a pragmatic feminist theory by weaving together seemingly disparate strains of philosophical thought, including central ideas of Merleau -- Ponty, Judith Butler, Sandra Harding, Lucius Outlaw, and Nietzsche, with the work of John Dewey. What survives scrutiny imbues a Deweyean pragmatism that emphasizes a dynamic, reciprocal, transformative relationship between individual members of the environment and with the environment itself, denying traditionally accepted dichotomies such as mind/body, subject/object, and nature/experience. Two ideas ground Sullivan's theory. First, human corporeality, not an abstract metaphysic, is the basis of truth, moral agency, conceptions of self, and human flourishing. Second, the improvement of individual embodied existence and the improvement of the world are mutually dependent. At times, the idea of bodies is somewhat elusive; still, Sullivan is superb at making difficult ideas in feminism and Continental philosophy seem natural partners for pragmatism. This is an important book for those interested in seeing how traditional philosophy can contribute to contemporary feminist theory. It complements Susan Bordo's Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (1993); Raia Prokhovnik's Rational Woman: A Feminist Critique of Dichotomy (CH, Jun'00); and Charlene Haddock Seigfried's Feminist Interpretations of John Dewey (2001). Upper -- division undergraduates through faculty and researchers. -- S. MartinellFernandez, Western Illinois University, Choice, December 2001

Review

"This is an important book for those interested in seeing how traditional philosophy can contribute to contemporary feminist theory." -- Choice

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253214408
• ISBN-13: 978-0253214409
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,268,881 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't live up to its potential, July 29, 2007

By	A.E.V. "Alice" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

As someone familiar with most of John Dewey's works, with a distaste for continental philosophy, and with a budding interest in theories of gender, I was very interested to see someone apply Dewey's work to feminist thought. However, I found this work disappointing as a whole. The first two chapters are fairly strong, explaining Dewey's idea of "transaction" and then applying it to Judith Butler's ideas of performativity.

But the third chapter (about communication) was, in my opinion, poorly argued and involved numerous misunderstandings of transaction and Dewey's work in general. The fourth chapter (on somaesthetics) completely diverges from the rest of the book and drops the connection with Dewey and pragmatism almost entirely to talk about Nietzsche. I have no idea why chapter four was in the book, or what I was supposed to get out of it. Chapter five is a confused effort to illustrate the problems of foundationalist epistemology, and to justify feminist standpoint theory; it does neither of these very effectively. As with chapter four, I wasn't entirely sure how it was intended to relate to the rest of the book, or to pragmatism in general.

All in all, the claims that emerge out of this work are trivial (we should listen to each other, and activism can bring about social change), irrelevant (the entire discussion of Nietzschean somaesthetics), or absurd (women's experience is epistemically prior to men's).